Breakfast at the Shore, Dinner in a Cloud

The Hilton Waikoloa is probably the Disneyland of Big Island hotels.  It has both a tram and a boat to shuttle guests around the grounds and employees travel via a mile-long underground tunnel.

In addition to the two pools each with their own water slides, a sand-bottom pool, a lagoon stocked with fish, and over $7 million worth of art there is also:

a very bouncy suspension bridge,

flamingos,

dolphins (jumping in the background on the left),

a dolphin calf (with his/her mama),

and enough trick-or-treating loot to equal a meal (it did; that was our lunch).

After spending most of the day enjoying the water slides and sitting under a canopy overlooking lava rocks spilling into the ocean,

we took off for sunset at Mauna Kea.  Mauna Kea is the state's tallest peak at 13,796ft (above sea level; below sea level to the ocean floor is an additional 15,000ft).  During the 90 minute drive the sky over the mountain looked ominous, but weather can change in an instant here so it's really hard to tell what might be happening miles and/or hours away.  Here we stopped under a tree to pull up the roof and the angle of the road made R grateful for the grab bar.

It is possible to go to the Mauna Kea summit, but we didn't want to be driving down the steep gravel road at night so we parked at the observatory at 9,200ft.  We piled on the sweaters and outerwear and set off west from the observatory to a spot known for pretty sunsets.  Which would probably be true if we weren't literally IN A CLOUD.  

We enjoyed our picnic dinner and watched the clouds move around us pretty quickly.  Eventually the clouds cleared enough to show us something pretty.

Something growing at 9200 ft.

As the sun set we pulled out our hats and gloves before climbing back down to the observatory.  At the observatory the staff pulls out telescopes of all sizes for public viewing.  We were able to see Jupiter and its moons "up close".  The staff, mostly University of Hawaii grad students, also presented a Hawaiian navigational tale and pointed out constellations with cool green lasers.

Our last day at the Big Island included a Kona coffee farm tour and tasting.  We learned too much about what makes coffee "Kona" and how the coffee is processed. (This is also where our camera threw a temper-tantrum thus the lack of pictures.)  We won't bog you down in the details but if you're curious, just ask!  

We knew this trip would only give us a taste of the Big Island but we really can't wait to go back to see more.